Conclusion

Three central arguments have been made in this essay. First, while the definition of accountability and our understanding of the appropriate point of division between its legal and political forms depends to quite some extent upon our underlying normative perspective, it is nonetheless possible to engage in definitional/analytical rather than normative arguments about the concept, as is demonstrated by certain of the arguments concerning what constitutes political accountability.

This conclusion may also be underlined by the acceptance of theorists such as Tomkins that political accountability (and the location of its boundary with legal accountability) can be assessed not only in normative terms but also from the standpoint of efficacy in promoting the goals of the concept. Analysis of political accountability at this theoretical level thus offers important lessons for our understanding of accountability as a whole. Secondly, many of the constitutional principles and practices associated with the legislature—ministerial responsibility being an obvious example—can be associated with political accountability, depending upon how that concept is defined, but require an acknowledgement of the role played by legal mechanisms in order to understand their operation, demonstrating the connection between those mechanisms. These points hopefully help underline the importance of debate about political accountability for our understanding of accountability as a whole, and of debate about accountability for practical analysis of the constitutional architecture. Thirdly, the case study of national security, human rights and accountability provides an illustration of the extent to which—in an area of absolutely central importance to contemporary government and to political and constitutional debate—a combination of legal and political accountability mechanisms has been maintained, seemingly involving a ‘dialogue’ between relevant institutions.^[1032].

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Source: Bamforth Nicholas, Leyland Peter (eds.). Accountability in the Contemporary Constitution. Oxford University Press,2014. — 425 p.. 2014

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